Republicans in Loyalty Free Fall

By Fidel "Butch" Montoya

It is amazing if it was not so frightening to listen to some people complaining about President Obama’s lack of leadership. For example, it is simply unbelievable to hear the Republicans in Congress criticize the President for not dealing with the economic crisis facing our nation and for that matter, the world.

Many economists agree that the recession we find ourselves facing begin in December of 2007. Yet, it is odd how the press did nothing to expose the dangers of the recession while President Bush ‘lead’ the nation. Nothing was said of the billions in dollars being spent, which in turn generated the largest deficit in our nation’s history.

Least we forget in our anger, fear, and expectations, President Obama has been President only for six weeks. Yet in those six weeks, we hear the unreasonable demands from the Republican leadership on what course of action we must face in order to deal with the economic free fall we find ourselves in.

As our nation faces the worst economic crisis since World War II, with the loss of 4.4 million jobs lost since December of 2007 and half of those jobs lost in the last 4 months, Republicans seem hell bent on seeing our President fail. In February alone, over 651,000 jobs were lost.

The unemployment rate stands at a stark 8.1 percent. And some economists predict that the unemployment rate could reach 10 percent before we start to see the end of this recession, sometime in 2010.

Do you realize the millions more who are receiving severance pay, are not counted as unemployed as long as they are being paid these settlements?

In other words, it is going to get a lot worse before there are even signs of improvement in the economy.

I find it almost ‘un-American’ for the Republican leadership in the Congress to oppose every measure the President presents in order deal with the crisis this country faces.

Bob Herbert, op-ed columnist for The New York Times says it best. “In the midst of the craziness, conservatives are busy trying to blame this epic economic catastrophe — a conflagration of their own making — on the new president.

Forget Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush and George Herbert Hoover Bush and the Heritage Foundation and the Club for Growth and Phil Gramm and Newt Gingrich and all the rest. The right-wingers would have you believe this is Obama’s downturn.”

What is unique about the economic crisis is that every one of us knows someone that has been adversely affected by the downturn in the economy. This crisis is not about people we have never met. This crisis is personal and has the potential of affecting many more people we know, including ourselves.

But instead of lending a helping hand to the President, by working with him to counter attack the consequences of the economic free fall, Republicans must think we not aware of the role they played when President Bush was President. Much of the blame for this crisis starts with the economic policies of the Republican Party from the last 8 years.

As Herbert says in his column, “What I know is that the renegade clowns who ruined this economy, the Republican right in alliance with big business and a fair number of feckless Democrats — all working in opposition to the interests of working families — have no credible basis for waging war against serious efforts to get us out of their mess..”

While Rome is burning, the Republicans are thinking up more strategies to oppose any plan or effort by President Obama to deal with the recession that is only getting worse and far more deepening than previously predicted by economic experts.

How can the ‘loyal oppression’ not see the urgency and the need for the Republican Party to work diligently along side the President? With the economy in a tailspin, millions of workers out of a job, what else will it take to wake up these right wingers?

The debate goes on as to whether or not we are in a recession or facing a depression. I can answer this question….. As long as you have lost your job, you’re in situation where you may lose your home in foreclosure, or where you simply cannot pay for food and living expenses…that is a depression.

I have said it before…and I will say it again. Unless we unite in our support of the President’s best efforts to lead this nation out of the economic crisis we are facing, we are doomed to failure.

More importantly, if we – The Church – do not unite in prayer for our President and this nation, we are doomed to the continual attacks of the devil.

Prayer, you scoff or criticize. You say we need more than just prayer right now. Yes, I agree to a point. But instead of fighting the economic policies of a six week old President like the Republicans are doing, the least we can do is pray.

Sometime Christians forget that prayer is a conversation and request that reaches into the Holy of Holies – the very Throne Room of the Most High – the place where our prayers are heard and answered by the Supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.

The Church cannot afford to align itself with naysayers, with dooms day prophets, with fear, trembling, and confusion. We can appeal for power, strength, faith, and the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We can ask forgiveness for our sins and the sins of a morally corrupt nation. We can repent of our personal and national sins.

The self righteousness of those in the Congress who seek only to see our President fail, I say lookout. A wave of righteous prayer is coming your way. Repent or face the consequences of your disloyalty.


Fidel "Butch" Montoya
H. S. Power & Light Ministries - Latino Faith Initiative
Denver, Colorado 80212
fmon@hotmail.com